Rabbi Shlomo Kazarnovsky was a Chasid of the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn. Many years ago, Rabbi Kazarnovsky and the previous Rebbe's son-in-law, Rabbi Shmaryahu Gurary, were sent on a mission to Toronto, Canada. They were visited in their hotel by a few other Chasidim and supporters of Lubavitch. One of them was a local rabbi in Toronto, who told them the following story:
Not long ago, a member of the rabbi's synagogue had been suddenly stricken with paralysis. When the rabbi heard what happened, he went to visit him in the hospital. The man's condition was very grave, and he could barely speak. The members of the man's family, huddled together outside his room, told the rabbi he couldn't even enter to see him. Standing in the hospital corridor, they proceeded to fill him in on all the sordid details of his illness.
When the patient heard the rabbi's voice, however, he instructed the nurse to allow him to enter the sickroom. As soon as he stepped inside the man found his voice. "I heard that the Rebbe of Lubavitch is now in the United States," he said.
"Please write to him for me and ask him what I can do to redeem myself and regain my health." The rabbi immediately wrote a letter describing the man's condition, and received an equally speedy reply from the Rebbe.
The Rebbe had answered: "Tell him that a branch of Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim is now being built in Montreal. Advise him to donate the sum of one thousand dollars. The angel of one hundred is not the same as the angel of one thousand, as it states, 'If there be but one interceding angel out of a thousand [accusers], etc.' "
As soon as the Rebbe's answer arrived the rabbi hurried back to the hospital to show the sick man the letter. The relatives were very surprised that it had come so fast. However, after the rabbi told them what the Rebbe had advised, the man's brother-in-law commented in English, "You see? They're already trying to squeeze money out of him. You know what kind of people these are..."
The rabbi would not give him the dignity of a response. He walked straight into the man's room and read him the Rebbe's letter. When he had finished reading, the man turned to his son sitting next to the bed and said, "Son, I want to live. Take a thousand dollars and go to Montreal." The son did exactly as he was told and left for Montreal.
Several days later one of the hospital's leading specialists came in to examine the patient. After checking his condition, the doctor left the room in a fury. Confronting the man's family, which had maintained a steady vigil ever since he was stricken, he demanded, "Who gave you permission to bring in outside doctors and interfere in the patient's treatment? What kind of medications have you been giving him?" The man's relatives were stunned. They did not understand what he meant, as no other doctors had been called in on the case, and no special medications had been prescribed. They insisted that they had done absolutely nothing.
"If that's the case," the doctor continued, "then a genuine miracle has occurred. The patient's condition has undergone a radical change for the better. He is almost ready to be discharged."
Although he needed the assistance of crutches to get around for a short time, they were eventually discarded. The man experienced a complete recovery from his illness.
